This U.S. non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 2004-14248, filed on Mar. 3, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus of fabricating a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method and apparatus of fabricating a semiconductor device by back grinding and dicing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a plurality of semiconductor chips may be formed on a semiconductor wafer, which may be separated into individual semiconductor chips by a back grinding process and a dicing process. Back grinding may be a process of grinding a rear surface of the semiconductor wafer, and dicing may be a process of cutting the semiconductor wafer into individual semiconductor chips using, for example, a blade.
FIGS. 1 through 6 are sectional views showing a conventional method of fabricating a semiconductor device including back grinding and dicing.
Referring to FIG. 1, a semiconductor wafer 1 formed with a circuit pattern 3 is shown. The semiconductor wafer 1 may be composed of, for example, silicon. A front surface of the semiconductor wafer 1 formed with the circuit pattern 3 may have a plurality of semiconductor chips. A protection tape 5 for back grinding may adhere on the front surface of the semiconductor wafer 1.
Referring to FIG. 2, the semiconductor wafer 1 with the protection tape 5 thereon may be upside down, thereby placing a rear surface 1a of the semiconductor wafer 1 to face upward. The rear surface 1a of the semiconductor wafer 1 may be then grinded using for example, a grinding tool 6 which results in a relatively thin semiconductor wafer 1.
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the rear surface 1a of the thinned semiconductor wafer may have a tape 7 for dicing adhering thereon. In other words, the rear surface 1a of the semiconductor wafer 1 with the circuit pattern 3 and the protection tape 5 on the front surface thereof may be adhered to the tape 7 for dicing.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 4, the protection tape 5 for back grinding adhering on the front surface of the thinned semiconductor wafer 1 may be removed.
Referring to FIG. 5, by removing the protection tape 5 for back grinding, the surface of the semiconductor wafer 1 may be exposed. Using a light source 8 and a camera 9, a position of dicing on the surface of the semiconductor wafer 1 may be detected.
Referring to FIG. 6, a blade 11 of dicing equipment may be used for dicing (cutting) the semiconductor wafer, and thus obtaining individual semiconductor chips 13.
However, the performed dicing when fabricating the conventional semiconductor device typically generates powders due to the cutting procedure of the semiconductor wafer 1. The silicon powders may be washed off by applying deionized water for cleaning and cooling the dicing equipment. However, applying deionized water may only partially remove the silicon powders. For example, in a conventional semiconductor device for image processing, such as a charge coupled device (CCD), the remain silicon power left over on the semiconductor chip 13 may adversely affect the processing of the semiconductor chip 13.
Furthermore, the conventional method of fabricating the semiconductor device may require tape replacement and removal of the protection tape for back grinding, which increases fabricating cost. Further, when replacing the tape, a relatively thin semiconductor wafer 1 may be more likely to split or crack.